Judge warns of increase in use of Donegal students as money mules

February 2, 2023

Donegal’s most senior Judge has expressed his concern over the rising. number of students coming before the courts after being used as money mules by criminal gangs.

Circuit Court Judge John Aylmer was speaking as he sentenced two students to to terms of community service after they pleaded guilty to allowing their bank accounts to be used for fraud.

Earlier in the week, Letterkenny Circuit Court dealt with two other young Letterkenny men facing court on similar charges.

A number of other students are currently before the District Court awaiting their cases to be processed for similar offences.

Increasing numbers of students and young people are being approached by criminal gangs to get access to their bank accounts in a bid to launder money which is the proceeds of crime through.

The students are given relatively small sums of cash in return but a number have appeared in court after bank fraud units identified the illegal activity on the accounts of the students.

Judge Aylmer expressed his concern at the increase in such cases.

He told the court “They (the accused students) were both used by criminals as money mules who make their bank accounts available for criminals to launder proceeds of crime.

“This is quite a problem. This type of offence is appearing quite often before the court,” he warned.

LEAVE A COMMENT